Chicago

Schweitzer, Albert

(1887–1965)

Born in Alsace; NT scholar who held that Jesus believed that he was the Messiah-designate who was to herald the coming of the kingdom of God in the
near future. Schweitzer held that both traditional and liberal interpretations of Jesus overlooked the fundamentally apocalyptic
nature of Jesus' teaching. His most famous book was The Quest of the Historical Jesus (ET 1910, with a commendation by the Cambridge professor F. C. Burkitt; new edn. 2000). Schweitzer was also a doctor of medicine and founded and ran a hospital in Lambarene, for which he raised funds in Europe
by organ recitals of the music of Bach, of which he was a notable interpreter. ‘Jesus of Nazareth will not suffer himself
to be modernised as an historical figure. He refuses to be detached from his own time’ (Schweitzer).